Trivia: Following Disney's acquisition of Fox, the creators of this show pitched a revival to stream on Disney+. Producer Larry Houston has said he would come out of retirement specifically to work on this. The revival - titled X-Men '97 - was announced on Disney+ Day in November of 2021 for a 2024 premiere date, with much of the surviving original cast returning.
Trivia: At the end of the opening titles, there is a short bald man in a green outfit running with Magneto's crew. For years, fans had wondered who this character was, as he has no counterpart in the comics, and he only had a fleeting appearance in the season 1 episode "Slave Island." Series director Larry Houston finally revealed that the character is nobody in particular, and that he was mistakenly placed in the opening titles by the animation company AKOM.
Trivia: Lenore Zann originally turned down the role of Rogue, as she had no interest in working on a cartoon, deeming it not serious enough. Her agent eventually convinced her to audition. When she finally read for the part, the casting directors immediately told her that she was exactly what they were looking for.
Trivia: Cedric Smith and Catherine Disher - who voiced Professor X and Jean Grey, respectively - were married at the time the show was in production.
Trivia: Despite its guitar-driven sound, the theme song for this show was actually written entirely on a keyboard using MIDI technology. Composer Ron Wasserman attributed this to having hardly any gear to work with, which only consisted of a nice mixer board that had EQ in it, and one compressor. He even admitted to pouring a Coke into the first console so that they would buy him a new one.
Trivia: A few weeks into the show's production, the staff was informed by Marvel that their character designs had to be changed. This is because the characters were modelled on artist Jim Lee's redesigns in the comics, and he, along with some other artists, were in the process of leaving Marvel Comics to found Image Comics. To convince Marvel to change their minds, storyboard artist Will Meugniot submitted a deliberately awful looking model sheet that looked reminiscent of 1970s Hanna-Barbera cartoons.
Trivia: Chris Potter, who voiced Gambit, has said he always wanted to play Gambit in the films, stating that he looked like Gambit when he was younger. He was actually brought in to audition for the role of Cyclops for the first X-Men film, but thought to himself before the audition that he didn't want to play Cyclops and have to wear those "bad sunglasses."
Trivia: When the show was in early stages of development, Saban Entertainment sold executive producer Stan Lee on the idea of the show's premise being a "mutant of the week" series, which would see Professor X and Cyclops as the only two main characters, and they would drive around in a van, accompanied by a dog, and search for different mutants every episode.
Trivia: In 2019, the creator of a 1980's Hungarian TV series called "Linda" filed a lawsuit against this show, alleging that the theme song to "X-Men" is a ripoff the theme song to "Linda." Despite airing in another country, the creator of "Linda" stated that the creators of "X-Men" had visited Hungary in the late 80's and rubbed shoulders with members of the Hungarian film industry. Interestingly, despite "X-Men" being far more popular globally than an obscure Hungarian TV show, its creator said he was unfamiliar with "X-Men" until 2017.
Trivia: The character Morph was created for the show, though he was based on a character from the comics called Changeling. The creators of the show created the character with the sole purpose of killing him off, in order to establish stakes, though he was later brought back because of his popularity. Showrunner Eric Lewald stated that originally the character of Thunderbird was going to be used instead of Morph, but they then decided against killing off who would have been the only Native American character on the show.
Trivia: The team roster depicted in this series is largely made up of members of the Blue Team (Cyclops, Wolverine, Beast, Gambit, Rogue and Jubilee) that was established in the first issue of X-Men Vol. 2, with Storm and Jean Grey representing the Gold Team. Most of the characters' designs are also based on artist Jim Lee's redesigns.
Trivia: Jeremy Ratchford, the actor who voiced Banshee, would go on to portray the same character in the 1996 made-for-television film "Generation X."
Trivia: The show contained numerous references to the Terminator film series. Several episodes such as "Time Fugitives" and "One Man's Worth" (also "Days of Future Past," but that was based on a pre-Terminator comic) featured one or more characters traveling into the past to prevent an event that causes a dystopian future. The robots from Cable's future bear a resemblance to the T-800s. When Mr. Sinister's body is blown to bits in "Reunion, Part 2" it begins to reassemble itself exactly like the T-1000 when it was frozen and then blown to bits. Wolverine even refers to Bishop as Mr. Terminator in the episode "Days of Future Past, Part 1." Another Schwarzenegger movie, "Total Recall", is referenced in "Time Fugitives, Part 2" when Cable uses a hologram of himself in order to bait someone into shooting at him.
Trivia: George Buza, who voiced Beast, never watched any episodes of this show until 2019, more than 20 years after the show ended. He finally decided to watch them at the insistence of Cal Dodd, who voiced Wolverine, because Buza was scheduled to be a guest at his first comic con, and decided he needed to have knowledge of the show, knowing that fans at conventions would be asking him questions about it.
Trivia: Despite the character's current massive popularity, Deadpool only made three unofficial cameos on this show, as the character was not nearly as popular in the early 90s. Once as a mental projection during a psychic session between Professor X and Sabretooth in the season 1 episode "Deadly Reunions"; as an illusion created by the dark side of Professor X's consciousness in the season 3 episode "The Phoenix Saga Part 2: The Dark Shroud"; and as form that Morph took during a confrontation with Wolverine in the season 2 episode "Whatever It Takes." Deadpool was set to make his first official appearance in a television series in the second season of "Wolverine and the X-Men", but that show was canceled before this ever came to fruition.
Answer: It appears a number of factors led to its demise. It was originally intended to air for 65 episodes, but its popularity extended that. However, there were continual production quality problems, issues regarding whether the content was suitable enough for children, as well as financial considerations that finally led to it being ended.
raywest ★